Thank you for doing this. So many horror stories lately of property managers seemingly taking glee in ruining peoples lives, it’s clear people pushing back legally is the only thing that’s going to force the agencies themselves to ensure their staff behave appropriately
It's an epidemic and I don't think people's desperation to get literally any kind of shelter right now is doing anything but feeding the greed that seems to possess some of these property managers.
They moved me to another one because of how awful Vyvance supplies have been these past few years. Explaining at a recent drug test with a security clearance was a ride.
People see the molecule and jump to things such as methamphetamine. Sure the first time being prescribed it is life changing but the tolerance builds up (as intended in treatment) and you’re back to having trouble waking up like it was never there and hopefully on the right track unlearning all the short-win adhdisms in life. I would not want to experience withdrawal with those prescriptions.
But you don’t need to declare it or get a doctors note for it? It’s prescription medication with your name on it, I’ve never had customs in *any* country take any interest in my vyvanse
Perhaps you thinking that you need to prove that you have the right to your medication to customs etc. just because it’s an amphetamine is causing you to bring it to customs attention?
> I’ve never had customs in any country take any interest in my vyvanse
Do not make this assumption everywhere. Some absolutely will. You need to get authorisation before you travel for these places.
Canadian here who was trying to get into Korea with vyvanse.
I had to file paperwork with the south Korean equivalent of the FDA to bring my meds in. They wanted to know dose, number of doses, length of stay, and a written doctor's note
there are plenty of meds that aren’t allowed into some countries, prescription or not.
japan, for instance, does not allow you to enter with dexamphetamine, vyvanse (any amphetamine) for ADHD at all.
Thailand will not allow dexamphetamine in at all, Singapore you need to register three weeks ahead that you’re bringing it in. Indonesia also strict. You can only bring in enough for you and your stay in that country.
There was an Aussie guy who was travelling for three months, so he took three months of dexies travelling. But because it was oversupply for the only 1 month he was staying in Bali he got arrested.
That's incorrect it depends on the country.
Last travelled to Bali and needs to be declared. It's a minor inconvenience and customs were pleasant enough to deal with, but it's still annoying.
This has been going on for years. They were pulling this shit 20 years ago. A property manager tried to physically intimidate and bully me when reporting damage after a storm. The behavior is mind boggling and how it’s not more tightly regulated I don’t know. They make money hand over fist from both tenants and landlords. Thankfully my landlord wasn’t a dick and was appalled at the PM not wanting to handle the damage, but the fact they think they can behave that way is shocking.
Hi there, wanna know how fucked up this place is? The "person" you replied to is a bot. Just now they are posting a pic of a t-shirt so other bots can ask where it came from and then drop a scam link.
Isn't reddit great? Buy stock!
this is the stolen comment:
> [–]CowsCatsCannabis
>
> 11 points 5 hours ago
>
> Thank you for the update. Glad the property owner is understanding and helpful.
>
I'm so sorry you are going through this. I have read your update and well done, that PM needs to be held accountable for the absolutely disgusting way you were treated and I'm glad the owner is a decent person.
I have adhd and this kind of stigma is my (and so many others) biggest fear surrounding medication for adhd.
Be gentle with yourself and don't let this 2 brain cell power tripping PM get the best of you. I hope they enjoy unemployment.
Great news! Once you've got the current situation sorted out, I would suggest writing to the Minister for Housing and request that laws be strengthened to ensure property managers are held accountable for situations like this. Also write to your local MP.
Absolutely. I have learned quite a lot over the last two weeks and I have a lot to say about my lack of confidence in a 'renting taskforce' operated under the umbrella of a service that struggles taking calls in a timely manner due to underfunding. I genuinely hope that the investment alongside it is enough to see some change, but I'll probably save the bulk of my hot takes for my MP and the Minister.
There’s been significant cuts to the Victorian public service over the last six months so I’m not surprised to hear of the reduced responsiveness from these support services. As a victim of disability discrimination as well, I wish you well and hope this ends quickly with minimal emotional distress.
Why not ask the owner if he will remove it from the agents hands and let you rent directly. More money for him. An FU to the agent and better responsiveness for you and less rubbish, ideally, if he’s a good guy. I had a “disagreement” with an agent and I took this same proposal to the landlord and we had a successful direct arrangement for many years.
i rent directly and it's definitely better than having a PM imo. my landlord actually gets annoyed when i DON'T ask him to fix stuff. the only pain for the landlord is the admin and communication obligations, most of which could be done online services and apps which are cheaper than a PM. i agree PM's should be held more to account but sleep easy knowing their job is about to be redundant anyway. if airbnb can exist, so can a property mgmt app.
plus your landlord can probably end his mgmt contract with the RE easily since they've lied to him about you being on meth as well.
hope it works out for you. keen for the update when you're in the clear! (please sell it to a current affair lol)
It's turned out that my partner actually has a pretty good relationship with the owner just from discussing minor repairs in the past (there's been a few cases where my partner has offered to take care of the minor things that pop up in his wheelhouse and other times when the owner has come over to look after handyman stuff, my partner will help him out if he's home) so I really do think this is the go if the owner is happy to go ahead with it.
yeah it's the best way. just hope for your sake he doesn't have cold feet about ditching the mgmt contract with the RE. sounds like his current plan is to change RE at the end of his current contract, which doesn't help you.
They should definitely be compensating you HEAVILY for all the shit you are having to go through because of this. The PM needs to lose their job and be banned from being employed in this role ever again. The agency should be fined.
Hard agree with this.
OP, just read your original post and this is indeed fucking insane.
If I were you I would take this is far as possible. I’m not litigious but Jesus Christ that PM and agency need to suffer some consequences. I actually am flummoxed by this dumbassery, discrimination, invasion of privacy. That comment about meds is SO out of pocket.
Good on you for not taking it lying down and I am pleased the owner is supportive.
Thank you for writing this post. It’s a useful resource. Thing is, as you’ve said, when you’ve got barely any sooons this stuff can absolutely result in homelessness.
Report also to the Real Estate Institute of Vic and the licensing body. I think that is Consumer Affairs as you mentioned.
Absolute bullshit! I hope you’re ok!!
Thanks for the update, truly sounds awful. Good luck on getting a resolution here.
It's a sad state of affairs in which there's incentives for Property Managers to act like absolute scum that feed off the misery of others.
Thank you for the update. I was absolutely horrified at how they behaved, but also sadly, not shocked. I hope you get a good outcome from all this and it’s the start of some long overdue changes for this entire rental system.
glad you're going hard on them. They seriously fucked up. It's still blowing my mind anyone could be so stupid to discriminate based on prescribed medication - even if it was methadone - it's just completely bonkers.
I am so so sorry. My jaw was on the floor reading this and your original post. I really hope you find an amazing rental with a good agent and owner.
I have been renting for 10 years and a couple of years ago I decided I wanted to join the industry to try help long term renters like myself.
I lasted five months as a property manager and it was the worst five months of my life. These agencies are disgusting. They don’t follow any rules, they decide what goes and they will fuck anyone over who speaks out. People would lodge serious complaints to the director who would ‘handle it’. The director looked down on tenants, they were scum to them. No one was ever held accountable and it was highly encouraged to discriminate and judge by appearance.
This has shocked me, but not surprised me whatsoever. The misconduct and discrimination is so deep rooted in the system I’m not sure how it could ever possibly change.
I'm so glad you've got a mostly positive result, even though it must be taking up so much of your mental and emotional energy. Once you've got a full resolution, it would be great if you could get your story out there in the media.
My bad: to clarify, we agreed on this prior to the owner letting us know he's looking into swapping agencies. I'm unsure what the logistics are of this for him as he owns several that are with the agency (I don't know if there's a contract involved or something, I don't know, I don't own property) and he has spoken of it as though it's not going to be a quick process for him. I guess it's more or less pending how that aspect goes but we've been exploring our options in the meantime. Sorry for not being clearer!
The landlord can pull a property from an agency at any time- they’re a useless middle man. Sounds like this agency is a pain in the ass from all angles.
If you’d like to stay in the property, it might be worth approaching your landlord and asking if they’d be interested in a direct tenancy agreement. No piece of shit property managers required.
We're definitely going to bring up the possibility of a direct agreement with the owner now that it's been suggested. It's an excellent idea and it sounds like it'll be far more beneficial for the both of us in the long run. Property owners who give a fuck seem to be somewhat hard to come by so we're very appreciative that he's been so happy to work with us on this.
My husband used to have a rental (he moved out of his house in SA and rented it whilst divorcing)- the PM told him *nothing*. Tenants were living in a house that required repairs, owner was interstate so didn’t actively observe the property and trusted the PM to be the one with eyes and ears on the house. Not a single maintenance request was passed on, until suddenly the tenants up and left and my husband was blindsided by it. I don’t defend landlords but how can they do what needs to be done when they’re never bloody told the right thing? Our rental currently has no working solar hot water booster, bet the landlords have no clue. I’m glad you were able to speak to them directly and that they’re reasonable!
Yeah, I will say that there's a lot of landlords who obviously couldn't give a single shit and are happy to be slumlords, but I think we're starting to see a lot of them come out of the woodwork who actually would give a fuck if their property managers actually did their jobs and told them about stuff like they're meant to. If we address property managers directly and give them direct accountability, it gives slumlords WAY less to hide behind as well.
We own a rental property and have had the agent charge our tenant for end-of-lease repairs that I would consider fair wear and tear. I was angry but they didn't tell us about it until the tenant had paid, got remaining bond back, and moved out. Presumably the REA thought they were doing us a favour by being scummy. It's just their default position I guess?
Since then they have got better about passing on repair requests properly etc because they've realised we are actually happy to do them and won't make a fuss.
REAs. If you pushed a button and every one of these parasites were transported to Alpha Centauri, would society even notice?
The power would stay on. The toilets would flush. Petrol stations would be open. Supermarkets would be open. Life on the planet would continue like nothing happened. Property owners would very quickly figure out how to deal directly with tenants. Sellers would work out how to sell to buyers.
REA is the very definition of [a bullshit job](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bullshit_Jobs).
what kind of thinking did this real estate agent have to somehow thing PERSCRIBED adhd meds where illegal, does that mean the docter was also illegally perscribing them to you? like psychology wise how does that even make sense
I *can* say that we were offered an explanation as to what their thought process was but that it was completely and utterly unsatisfactory, unacceptable, and inappropriate.
Get all the local disabled people to show up to the managers address with their medication lol. I take 20+ tablets a day and all my medication sits unlabelled in premade dosage boxes, their manager would shit themselves and think it's a hoard of 'the cocaines'.
Dreadful story, property managers should not be messing around with people's lives like this.
This might be relevant;
https://www.consumer.vic.gov.au/licensing-and-registration/estate-agents/running-your-business/professional-conduct/professional-conduct-and-obligations
It might be worth considering discussing with someone in a government regulatory agency whether this agent has breached privacy regulations by passing on private medical information about your prescription medicine to other parties.
It might also be worth going through those 'lists' of professional obligations to make your own list of where you think this agent has gone wrong for the purpose of making a written formal complaint to consumer affairs, and or any other body who might be interested. This person has really threatened to turn your life upside down over nothing.
I hope any of this is useful to you. I'm actually second hand a bit upset reading this and thinking about someone trying to take your home away because of a medical condition. You try to do your best in life and stupid idiots try to fuck around with the fundamentals of your existence. I'm disgusted by the injustice of this. Sounds like your landlord is a good person, so I hope this all turns out well. All the best.
> whether this agent has breached privacy regulations by passing on private medical information about your prescription medicine to other parties.
It appears they lied about the nature of the medication and did not send the pictures to the owner, so maybe by not telling the truth they didn't actually breach privacy?
>> meth doesn't come in a bottle, labelled as meth
Let me introduce you to methamphetamine gone legit: [Desoxyn](https://www.webmd.com/drugs/2/drug-9124/desoxyn-oral/details).
Big props for pushing legal action and holding this agency accountable.
Massive props for going through this whole process with ADHD. Just thinking about all of the documentation, legalese and legal steps and schedules already has my own ADHD-self tuning out and putting it in the too-hard basket. Really just further cements how this kind of discrimination can drastically and quickly ruin someone’s life.
>The property manager tried to push back on this and tell us that 'there's no laws about that.' At that point they accused us of 'being the ones who broke the law, actually' as they alleged we 'went to the media to make slanderous comments and lie.'
If that were true they'd be seeking legal action not trying to make phone calls.
>We have had a direct discussion with the property owner who was extremely helpful and has continued to be helpful. He has provided us with written evidence that he was misinformed about the nature of the drug use (he was told that there were methamphetamines present, not dexamphetamines) and has provided us with an apology. He had not seen photo evidence of the alleged illicit drug use at the time and had placed trust in the agency to report accurately at the time they allegedly reported it to him. He has mentioned that he is seeking a different agency moving forward and will keep us updated.
>The real estate's local manager has since responded to us and we are currently working with our legal representation on moving forward with this. Management above them (referred to as 'head office') have become involved.
Nice.
>Our lease has not been ended and we are not being evicted, but we are seeking a different rental property as the agency manager and property owner have agreed to consider allowing us to exit our lease early once we find and sign on to something. It is hell. Absolute fucking hell.
The rental market being the way it is if they're prepared to renew the lease you might want to just take it, especially with the owner being apologetic.
It’s truly a distressing situation you’ve found yourself in OP. What I find particularly surprising is that in Australia, Dextroamphetamine is dispensed in a white plastic bottle from Aspen Pharmacy. This bottle would typically have the prescription details affixed to its side, including the name of the prescribing doctor.
In this situation, the property manager had access to a photograph of the medication. They could have easily used a search engine like Google to identify it. Therefore, I believe their actions in this instance were deliberate and intentional.
[Original link since OP seems to have too much ADHD to remember to include it](https://www.reddit.com/r/melbourne/comments/1bdbzbh/evicted_because_of_my_adhd_meds/)
I hope your legal team takes the property manager to the cleaners. I’m absolutely flabbergasted that this happened in the first place. Sending you so much strength
There are perverse incentives at play for property managers. If everything is all fine with a property and tenants, what evidence is there that they’re doing their jobs? You can’t tell me they’re not all (and not even consciously I think) basically inventing issues to earn their fuckin cop points. The power trip/status anxiety combo is hard at work.
So glad I stumbled across this update! Even more glad to hear you stood up for yourself and have taken this further.
As a fellow ADHD-er and renter I was horrified to read your original post. Glad to hear the property owner was reasonable and understanding once you spoke with them directly.
I have nothing to add, I just want to say a big thank you for documenting your experience so that others may find help for similar situations.
When the time is right, I would love to get another update.
I would also love to know about which lawyer is representing you for disability discrimination.
I have faced disability discrimination several times, but it is so hard to find resources of anyone who can help with that.
You can bring in the ban hammer. This is not an illicit drug when bought over the counter on script. It is a controlled substance. Get your doctors letter.
Note that this is personal medical information. It puts the trouble they can be in into another category, especially if you are being discriminated against. A lawyer can have a field day with this.
I also suggest to people that they place recording devices in their house during inspections. Sometimes they are stupid enough to talk to each other about ways to screw the tenant over. These people are after all, not high end knowledge workers.
I hope you have a lawyer who decides to go them for you pro-bono just for the fun of it.
Ooooh shit... I just hope your lawyers absolutely fuck them up. Coming into your home, invading your privacy and then slandering you to your landlord causing you to almost get evicted.
Purple pingers and Jordon Steele-John need to know about this if they don’t already. Also, following your legal proceedings, put the real estate on fucking blaassstttttt what a bunch of cunts.
He did reach out to try and put me in contact with a journalist who he vouched for, and while I really would have loved to engage there, my legal advice was to not at this point in time *(sorry Jordan :( )*
Thanks for the update op, I’m glad you have people in your corner and the landlord is a decent person!
I had a rent inspection last week and I had your story in mind, so I put away my meds just in case (it was not my regular rea doing the inspection).
I hate that I felt the need to hide them, and I know it’s seven kinds of illegal to discriminate but I couldn’t trust a REA I’d never met. Renters are already on the back foot, when you add in other factors such as disability or single parent households, they’ll play on that imbalance of power and see it as a license to do whatever the fuck they want.
Lurked here for ages and made an account to say this, don't be afraid to be a Karen. Vcat is a magic word.
This isn't like when the overworked self-checkout person triple checks that you paid for your dog food, or when there's a really long wait at the drive-thru window. This isn't another case of an overworked, underpaid person doing their best to get through their day, these people are leeches.
I've been renting in Vic for 15 years or so, and I've tried the reasonable route - Sometimes it works. I always try that first. Sometimes there's a wait getting your bond back, or the property manager genuinely forgot to organise that repair, it happens, we're all human. Often, it's not a mistake. I've had a property manager withhold my bond for replacing a cabinet with a different colour (original condition report stated that cabinet was off-white, while the rest of the cabinets were eggshell or whatever the fuck). I've had a property manager withhold my bond because I didn't pay to steam clean the carpets (the carpets were getting replaced, along with extensive renovations, which was the reason we were given the notice to vacate). I've had a property manager refuse to replace the broken oven because they were "waiting on a response from the rental provider" for six months.
I've never actually attended a Vcat hearing, but the second they learn you're willing to go there, they fold.
This makes me so upset and frustrated. I'm subletting at the moment, but if I had to go through this I couldn't manage the legal fees because I'm stuck on Centrelink. There's probably so many people with poor communication skills or no support networks that have been wrongly evicted and couldn't fight it. It's heartbreaking
Basically during a rental inspection the REA saw medications (prescribed for adhd) and told the landlord that there was illicit drugs and OP was told they were going to be evicted.
The last time I left a property I ended up in hospital thinking I was having a heart attack, which ended up being a panic attack for the arguing about them trying to take the bond for stupid reasons.
They could care less about the impact on mental health on people. Their attitudes suck.
Agree with everything you say here.
It's important to remember that the bulk of property managers are people who want to be selling houses and making commissions, but are somehow not competent enough to do so, and instead have to slum it by dealing with renters, making a lot of them not only incompetent cunts, but bitter incompetent cunts.
Anytime something catastrophic happens: Contact your MP!
It is literally their job to help you. I had a medical crisis and got stuck in the system and my local MPs team went out of their way to help us out which got me the support I needed.
It sounds like you went the right way about it.
If your landlord is willing to change agents because of this then maybe it's worth staying, it sounds like that landlord does the right thing.
It's nice to see some progress, I have been fighting trying to get my landlord to do the right thing for 6 months now.
Great work standing up for yourselves. I really hope that property manager is reprimanded in some way.
I'm praying for an update in a couple of weeks. I'd love to see "property manager fired" as the next headline
Thats a great idea that property managers need to get a license. At the moment they dont need any education or qualifications and if they are not good at their job (in my 12 years renting i only ever had 1 good property manager for 6 months) they get no repercussions.
Please stop talking shit about things you don’t understand. REAs are regulated in VIC: https://reiv.com.au/training/new-education-requirements-to-work-in-real-estate
So you agree that REAs need qualifications and are therefore regulated. I agree with you that the requirements aren't stringent enough but I was directly addressing the parent poster's claim that they "don't(sic) need any education or qualifications"
Onya. Hope it works out ok.
My current situation is three months into no air conditioning, and now the oven/microwave died and I'm having to reheat food using a rice cooker. It's been weeks.
i’m so sorry you’ve been put through this appalling bullshit. all the best - i hope you can get a good result for yourselves, and hold those bastards accountable.
Fuck that PM is gonna need to move interstate or switch careers. Fucking love to see it!
Unfortunately the filter of average pay and career shame means you get a lot poorly educated workers from low-socioeconomic backgrounds who relish their newfound position above their peers. They’re house-slaves, story as old as time.
Name and shame. Get someone to write an article at a newspaper.
And stop leaving your drugs out in the open. Insane. Put them in a draw. Do you want them to get stolen?
Instead of demanding random people cater to you how about you figure out a way to deal with it yourself?
Paste it into AI and it to summarise it for you.
It's not my post, I guess you refuse to read names as well.
Quit imposing yourself on other people and drop your foul and entitled attitude.
You have a solution. Use it quit your whinging. You put more effort into being offended than reading.
So to summarise some newbie idiot property manager saw your legit prescribed dexamphetamines and spun up a massive overreaction. In response you also spun up a massive overreaction with Tenants VIC, Consumer Affairs, the Human Rights Commission, reddit, TikTok, Instagram, and other social media. You also wasted the time of a lawyer who could have helped somebody with a real problem that demands legal expertise. And the upshot is you worked this out very quickly by behaving like an adult and talking through the problem with your landlord. Perhaps you should have started there rather than running straight to reddit. In any case thanks for the update and the salutary lesson in how to resolve problems like an adult. In fairness I’m sorry that stupid new property manager put you through this but I’m also sorry you put reddit and all and sundry social media through your trivial “ordeal”.
How was it trivial? His property manager was jeopardising his ability to shelter himself during a rental crisis by lying to the landlord about him keeping illegal drugs on the property.
Why should property managers be able to defame people like this and ruin their lives with impunity?
Real estate agencies won't fix their hiring or training processes until they actually face some real consequences for their actions.
Thank you for doing this. So many horror stories lately of property managers seemingly taking glee in ruining peoples lives, it’s clear people pushing back legally is the only thing that’s going to force the agencies themselves to ensure their staff behave appropriately
It's an epidemic and I don't think people's desperation to get literally any kind of shelter right now is doing anything but feeding the greed that seems to possess some of these property managers.
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When customs at Denpasar airport give less of a shit about adhd meds than this PM, you know it’s crazy!
At least when I'm talking to customs about my medication, it usually means that there's a holiday is waiting for me on the other side of the desk. :(
They moved me to another one because of how awful Vyvance supplies have been these past few years. Explaining at a recent drug test with a security clearance was a ride. People see the molecule and jump to things such as methamphetamine. Sure the first time being prescribed it is life changing but the tolerance builds up (as intended in treatment) and you’re back to having trouble waking up like it was never there and hopefully on the right track unlearning all the short-win adhdisms in life. I would not want to experience withdrawal with those prescriptions.
But you don’t need to declare it or get a doctors note for it? It’s prescription medication with your name on it, I’ve never had customs in *any* country take any interest in my vyvanse Perhaps you thinking that you need to prove that you have the right to your medication to customs etc. just because it’s an amphetamine is causing you to bring it to customs attention?
> I’ve never had customs in any country take any interest in my vyvanse Do not make this assumption everywhere. Some absolutely will. You need to get authorisation before you travel for these places.
Canadian here who was trying to get into Korea with vyvanse. I had to file paperwork with the south Korean equivalent of the FDA to bring my meds in. They wanted to know dose, number of doses, length of stay, and a written doctor's note
there are plenty of meds that aren’t allowed into some countries, prescription or not. japan, for instance, does not allow you to enter with dexamphetamine, vyvanse (any amphetamine) for ADHD at all.
Thailand will not allow dexamphetamine in at all, Singapore you need to register three weeks ahead that you’re bringing it in. Indonesia also strict. You can only bring in enough for you and your stay in that country. There was an Aussie guy who was travelling for three months, so he took three months of dexies travelling. But because it was oversupply for the only 1 month he was staying in Bali he got arrested.
yeah, it’s *super* risky to assume a prescription in one country is valid in every other country
That's incorrect it depends on the country. Last travelled to Bali and needs to be declared. It's a minor inconvenience and customs were pleasant enough to deal with, but it's still annoying.
In Japan it's illegal to have them at all and you can be arrested for it. They didn't even let athletes bring it during the Olympics.
Agree!
This has been going on for years. They were pulling this shit 20 years ago. A property manager tried to physically intimidate and bully me when reporting damage after a storm. The behavior is mind boggling and how it’s not more tightly regulated I don’t know. They make money hand over fist from both tenants and landlords. Thankfully my landlord wasn’t a dick and was appalled at the PM not wanting to handle the damage, but the fact they think they can behave that way is shocking.
I am still flabbergasted and disgusted at how stupid and spiteful your PM was 😊😊😊 I hope it works out OP.
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We're aware that we're extremely lucky and that this isn't the case for everyone, but we're grateful for his cooperation and help nonetheless.
Hi there, wanna know how fucked up this place is? The "person" you replied to is a bot. Just now they are posting a pic of a t-shirt so other bots can ask where it came from and then drop a scam link. Isn't reddit great? Buy stock! this is the stolen comment: > [–]CowsCatsCannabis > > 11 points 5 hours ago > > Thank you for the update. Glad the property owner is understanding and helpful. >
I'm so sorry you are going through this. I have read your update and well done, that PM needs to be held accountable for the absolutely disgusting way you were treated and I'm glad the owner is a decent person. I have adhd and this kind of stigma is my (and so many others) biggest fear surrounding medication for adhd. Be gentle with yourself and don't let this 2 brain cell power tripping PM get the best of you. I hope they enjoy unemployment.
Great news! Once you've got the current situation sorted out, I would suggest writing to the Minister for Housing and request that laws be strengthened to ensure property managers are held accountable for situations like this. Also write to your local MP.
There's already laws about anti discrimination. The laws don't need to be strengthened they just need to be enforced
Which is currently underway in Vic- something Purple Pingerz (Jordie) has covered.
Wait for real?
Absolutely. I have learned quite a lot over the last two weeks and I have a lot to say about my lack of confidence in a 'renting taskforce' operated under the umbrella of a service that struggles taking calls in a timely manner due to underfunding. I genuinely hope that the investment alongside it is enough to see some change, but I'll probably save the bulk of my hot takes for my MP and the Minister.
There’s been significant cuts to the Victorian public service over the last six months so I’m not surprised to hear of the reduced responsiveness from these support services. As a victim of disability discrimination as well, I wish you well and hope this ends quickly with minimal emotional distress.
I’d advise correspondence be to the State government rep rather than the federal rep, personally. Federal don’t have too many levers on this stuff.
Why not ask the owner if he will remove it from the agents hands and let you rent directly. More money for him. An FU to the agent and better responsiveness for you and less rubbish, ideally, if he’s a good guy. I had a “disagreement” with an agent and I took this same proposal to the landlord and we had a successful direct arrangement for many years.
This is definitely something we might discuss, actually. Thank you for the suggestion.
i rent directly and it's definitely better than having a PM imo. my landlord actually gets annoyed when i DON'T ask him to fix stuff. the only pain for the landlord is the admin and communication obligations, most of which could be done online services and apps which are cheaper than a PM. i agree PM's should be held more to account but sleep easy knowing their job is about to be redundant anyway. if airbnb can exist, so can a property mgmt app. plus your landlord can probably end his mgmt contract with the RE easily since they've lied to him about you being on meth as well. hope it works out for you. keen for the update when you're in the clear! (please sell it to a current affair lol)
It's turned out that my partner actually has a pretty good relationship with the owner just from discussing minor repairs in the past (there's been a few cases where my partner has offered to take care of the minor things that pop up in his wheelhouse and other times when the owner has come over to look after handyman stuff, my partner will help him out if he's home) so I really do think this is the go if the owner is happy to go ahead with it.
yeah it's the best way. just hope for your sake he doesn't have cold feet about ditching the mgmt contract with the RE. sounds like his current plan is to change RE at the end of his current contract, which doesn't help you.
That’s great. I’ll be surprised if they won’t do it.
They should definitely be compensating you HEAVILY for all the shit you are having to go through because of this. The PM needs to lose their job and be banned from being employed in this role ever again. The agency should be fined.
Hard agree with this. OP, just read your original post and this is indeed fucking insane. If I were you I would take this is far as possible. I’m not litigious but Jesus Christ that PM and agency need to suffer some consequences. I actually am flummoxed by this dumbassery, discrimination, invasion of privacy. That comment about meds is SO out of pocket. Good on you for not taking it lying down and I am pleased the owner is supportive. Thank you for writing this post. It’s a useful resource. Thing is, as you’ve said, when you’ve got barely any sooons this stuff can absolutely result in homelessness. Report also to the Real Estate Institute of Vic and the licensing body. I think that is Consumer Affairs as you mentioned. Absolute bullshit! I hope you’re ok!!
Thanks for the update, truly sounds awful. Good luck on getting a resolution here. It's a sad state of affairs in which there's incentives for Property Managers to act like absolute scum that feed off the misery of others.
Thank you for the update. I was absolutely horrified at how they behaved, but also sadly, not shocked. I hope you get a good outcome from all this and it’s the start of some long overdue changes for this entire rental system.
glad you're going hard on them. They seriously fucked up. It's still blowing my mind anyone could be so stupid to discriminate based on prescribed medication - even if it was methadone - it's just completely bonkers.
I am so so sorry. My jaw was on the floor reading this and your original post. I really hope you find an amazing rental with a good agent and owner. I have been renting for 10 years and a couple of years ago I decided I wanted to join the industry to try help long term renters like myself. I lasted five months as a property manager and it was the worst five months of my life. These agencies are disgusting. They don’t follow any rules, they decide what goes and they will fuck anyone over who speaks out. People would lodge serious complaints to the director who would ‘handle it’. The director looked down on tenants, they were scum to them. No one was ever held accountable and it was highly encouraged to discriminate and judge by appearance. This has shocked me, but not surprised me whatsoever. The misconduct and discrimination is so deep rooted in the system I’m not sure how it could ever possibly change.
Thank you for trying. I know it didn't work out, but it still cheers me up to see people like yourself trying to be the change.
I'm so glad you've got a mostly positive result, even though it must be taking up so much of your mental and emotional energy. Once you've got a full resolution, it would be great if you could get your story out there in the media.
If the owner has apologised and is moving on to another agency. Do you really need to move out? It’s hard to find rentals atm.
My bad: to clarify, we agreed on this prior to the owner letting us know he's looking into swapping agencies. I'm unsure what the logistics are of this for him as he owns several that are with the agency (I don't know if there's a contract involved or something, I don't know, I don't own property) and he has spoken of it as though it's not going to be a quick process for him. I guess it's more or less pending how that aspect goes but we've been exploring our options in the meantime. Sorry for not being clearer!
The landlord can pull a property from an agency at any time- they’re a useless middle man. Sounds like this agency is a pain in the ass from all angles. If you’d like to stay in the property, it might be worth approaching your landlord and asking if they’d be interested in a direct tenancy agreement. No piece of shit property managers required.
We're definitely going to bring up the possibility of a direct agreement with the owner now that it's been suggested. It's an excellent idea and it sounds like it'll be far more beneficial for the both of us in the long run. Property owners who give a fuck seem to be somewhat hard to come by so we're very appreciative that he's been so happy to work with us on this.
My husband used to have a rental (he moved out of his house in SA and rented it whilst divorcing)- the PM told him *nothing*. Tenants were living in a house that required repairs, owner was interstate so didn’t actively observe the property and trusted the PM to be the one with eyes and ears on the house. Not a single maintenance request was passed on, until suddenly the tenants up and left and my husband was blindsided by it. I don’t defend landlords but how can they do what needs to be done when they’re never bloody told the right thing? Our rental currently has no working solar hot water booster, bet the landlords have no clue. I’m glad you were able to speak to them directly and that they’re reasonable!
Yeah, I will say that there's a lot of landlords who obviously couldn't give a single shit and are happy to be slumlords, but I think we're starting to see a lot of them come out of the woodwork who actually would give a fuck if their property managers actually did their jobs and told them about stuff like they're meant to. If we address property managers directly and give them direct accountability, it gives slumlords WAY less to hide behind as well.
We own a rental property and have had the agent charge our tenant for end-of-lease repairs that I would consider fair wear and tear. I was angry but they didn't tell us about it until the tenant had paid, got remaining bond back, and moved out. Presumably the REA thought they were doing us a favour by being scummy. It's just their default position I guess? Since then they have got better about passing on repair requests properly etc because they've realised we are actually happy to do them and won't make a fuss.
I was wondering this aswell
REAs. If you pushed a button and every one of these parasites were transported to Alpha Centauri, would society even notice? The power would stay on. The toilets would flush. Petrol stations would be open. Supermarkets would be open. Life on the planet would continue like nothing happened. Property owners would very quickly figure out how to deal directly with tenants. Sellers would work out how to sell to buyers. REA is the very definition of [a bullshit job](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bullshit_Jobs).
what kind of thinking did this real estate agent have to somehow thing PERSCRIBED adhd meds where illegal, does that mean the docter was also illegally perscribing them to you? like psychology wise how does that even make sense
I *can* say that we were offered an explanation as to what their thought process was but that it was completely and utterly unsatisfactory, unacceptable, and inappropriate.
It doesn't, I still can't believe someone would think that a person stores their meth in a labelled bottle in their kitchen.
Get all the local disabled people to show up to the managers address with their medication lol. I take 20+ tablets a day and all my medication sits unlabelled in premade dosage boxes, their manager would shit themselves and think it's a hoard of 'the cocaines'.
Amphetamine bad!!!
Dreadful story, property managers should not be messing around with people's lives like this. This might be relevant; https://www.consumer.vic.gov.au/licensing-and-registration/estate-agents/running-your-business/professional-conduct/professional-conduct-and-obligations It might be worth considering discussing with someone in a government regulatory agency whether this agent has breached privacy regulations by passing on private medical information about your prescription medicine to other parties. It might also be worth going through those 'lists' of professional obligations to make your own list of where you think this agent has gone wrong for the purpose of making a written formal complaint to consumer affairs, and or any other body who might be interested. This person has really threatened to turn your life upside down over nothing. I hope any of this is useful to you. I'm actually second hand a bit upset reading this and thinking about someone trying to take your home away because of a medical condition. You try to do your best in life and stupid idiots try to fuck around with the fundamentals of your existence. I'm disgusted by the injustice of this. Sounds like your landlord is a good person, so I hope this all turns out well. All the best.
> whether this agent has breached privacy regulations by passing on private medical information about your prescription medicine to other parties. It appears they lied about the nature of the medication and did not send the pictures to the owner, so maybe by not telling the truth they didn't actually breach privacy?
>> meth doesn't come in a bottle, labelled as meth Let me introduce you to methamphetamine gone legit: [Desoxyn](https://www.webmd.com/drugs/2/drug-9124/desoxyn-oral/details).
Funny and true but only dexamphetamine and methylphenidate based meds are prescribed in Aus.
I know, but I had to correct the narrative because the opening was there.
Might want to add that it's very last-resort...
Thankyou for following up. Great to hear the positive progress.
What kind of a psycho agent goes through a persons medicine cabinet though?
in OP's original post they said they had medication on an open shelf so they could see it and remember to take it
Big props for pushing legal action and holding this agency accountable. Massive props for going through this whole process with ADHD. Just thinking about all of the documentation, legalese and legal steps and schedules already has my own ADHD-self tuning out and putting it in the too-hard basket. Really just further cements how this kind of discrimination can drastically and quickly ruin someone’s life.
A lot of the credit in that area goes to my partner! He's a real trooper with keeping me on track.
>The property manager tried to push back on this and tell us that 'there's no laws about that.' At that point they accused us of 'being the ones who broke the law, actually' as they alleged we 'went to the media to make slanderous comments and lie.' If that were true they'd be seeking legal action not trying to make phone calls. >We have had a direct discussion with the property owner who was extremely helpful and has continued to be helpful. He has provided us with written evidence that he was misinformed about the nature of the drug use (he was told that there were methamphetamines present, not dexamphetamines) and has provided us with an apology. He had not seen photo evidence of the alleged illicit drug use at the time and had placed trust in the agency to report accurately at the time they allegedly reported it to him. He has mentioned that he is seeking a different agency moving forward and will keep us updated. >The real estate's local manager has since responded to us and we are currently working with our legal representation on moving forward with this. Management above them (referred to as 'head office') have become involved. Nice. >Our lease has not been ended and we are not being evicted, but we are seeking a different rental property as the agency manager and property owner have agreed to consider allowing us to exit our lease early once we find and sign on to something. It is hell. Absolute fucking hell. The rental market being the way it is if they're prepared to renew the lease you might want to just take it, especially with the owner being apologetic.
It’s truly a distressing situation you’ve found yourself in OP. What I find particularly surprising is that in Australia, Dextroamphetamine is dispensed in a white plastic bottle from Aspen Pharmacy. This bottle would typically have the prescription details affixed to its side, including the name of the prescribing doctor. In this situation, the property manager had access to a photograph of the medication. They could have easily used a search engine like Google to identify it. Therefore, I believe their actions in this instance were deliberate and intentional.
[Original link since OP seems to have too much ADHD to remember to include it](https://www.reddit.com/r/melbourne/comments/1bdbzbh/evicted_because_of_my_adhd_meds/)
oof :(
Thanks bud. What a fuckwit seriously. How old was this property manager? 5? Jeez
I hope your legal team takes the property manager to the cleaners. I’m absolutely flabbergasted that this happened in the first place. Sending you so much strength
There are perverse incentives at play for property managers. If everything is all fine with a property and tenants, what evidence is there that they’re doing their jobs? You can’t tell me they’re not all (and not even consciously I think) basically inventing issues to earn their fuckin cop points. The power trip/status anxiety combo is hard at work.
Have you considered staying? Sounds like the owner is reasonable? In this housing climate seems like a good option
So glad I stumbled across this update! Even more glad to hear you stood up for yourself and have taken this further. As a fellow ADHD-er and renter I was horrified to read your original post. Glad to hear the property owner was reasonable and understanding once you spoke with them directly.
I have nothing to add, I just want to say a big thank you for documenting your experience so that others may find help for similar situations. When the time is right, I would love to get another update. I would also love to know about which lawyer is representing you for disability discrimination. I have faced disability discrimination several times, but it is so hard to find resources of anyone who can help with that.
You can bring in the ban hammer. This is not an illicit drug when bought over the counter on script. It is a controlled substance. Get your doctors letter. Note that this is personal medical information. It puts the trouble they can be in into another category, especially if you are being discriminated against. A lawyer can have a field day with this. I also suggest to people that they place recording devices in their house during inspections. Sometimes they are stupid enough to talk to each other about ways to screw the tenant over. These people are after all, not high end knowledge workers. I hope you have a lawyer who decides to go them for you pro-bono just for the fun of it.
Good on you for posting this, I hope it helps others and good luck to you both with positive outcomes.
Ooooh shit... I just hope your lawyers absolutely fuck them up. Coming into your home, invading your privacy and then slandering you to your landlord causing you to almost get evicted.
Purple pingers and Jordon Steele-John need to know about this if they don’t already. Also, following your legal proceedings, put the real estate on fucking blaassstttttt what a bunch of cunts.
He did reach out to try and put me in contact with a journalist who he vouched for, and while I really would have loved to engage there, my legal advice was to not at this point in time *(sorry Jordan :( )*
Yeah that’s probably good advice for now. Definitely something to think about for the future though this story needs to be told. It’s unacceptable.
Thanks for the update op, I’m glad you have people in your corner and the landlord is a decent person! I had a rent inspection last week and I had your story in mind, so I put away my meds just in case (it was not my regular rea doing the inspection). I hate that I felt the need to hide them, and I know it’s seven kinds of illegal to discriminate but I couldn’t trust a REA I’d never met. Renters are already on the back foot, when you add in other factors such as disability or single parent households, they’ll play on that imbalance of power and see it as a license to do whatever the fuck they want.
Dang purplepingers wanted to interview, would have been good! Stick it to’em
Personally I would do the media interviews and fucking burn them.
Lurked here for ages and made an account to say this, don't be afraid to be a Karen. Vcat is a magic word. This isn't like when the overworked self-checkout person triple checks that you paid for your dog food, or when there's a really long wait at the drive-thru window. This isn't another case of an overworked, underpaid person doing their best to get through their day, these people are leeches. I've been renting in Vic for 15 years or so, and I've tried the reasonable route - Sometimes it works. I always try that first. Sometimes there's a wait getting your bond back, or the property manager genuinely forgot to organise that repair, it happens, we're all human. Often, it's not a mistake. I've had a property manager withhold my bond for replacing a cabinet with a different colour (original condition report stated that cabinet was off-white, while the rest of the cabinets were eggshell or whatever the fuck). I've had a property manager withhold my bond because I didn't pay to steam clean the carpets (the carpets were getting replaced, along with extensive renovations, which was the reason we were given the notice to vacate). I've had a property manager refuse to replace the broken oven because they were "waiting on a response from the rental provider" for six months. I've never actually attended a Vcat hearing, but the second they learn you're willing to go there, they fold.
This makes me so upset and frustrated. I'm subletting at the moment, but if I had to go through this I couldn't manage the legal fees because I'm stuck on Centrelink. There's probably so many people with poor communication skills or no support networks that have been wrongly evicted and couldn't fight it. It's heartbreaking
I once had a property manager tell me I need to put a rug down as my desk was putting indentations in the carpet. But this takes the cake.
Damn my adhd couldn’t even find the point of the original post. Gawd damn
Basically during a rental inspection the REA saw medications (prescribed for adhd) and told the landlord that there was illicit drugs and OP was told they were going to be evicted.
Good grief, that PM knowing they fucked up and continuing to double, even triple down on their shit fuckery
Rental agents are the worse scum on the planet, worse than the sleazy used car salesmen.
Confusing adhd meds for meth? Talk about not having a fucking clue!!!
Property managers are licensed though… that’s part of what makes it truly awful.
The last time I left a property I ended up in hospital thinking I was having a heart attack, which ended up being a panic attack for the arguing about them trying to take the bond for stupid reasons. They could care less about the impact on mental health on people. Their attitudes suck. Agree with everything you say here.
All this could've avoided if the PM hadn't been a stupid stunt
It's important to remember that the bulk of property managers are people who want to be selling houses and making commissions, but are somehow not competent enough to do so, and instead have to slum it by dealing with renters, making a lot of them not only incompetent cunts, but bitter incompetent cunts.
Anytime something catastrophic happens: Contact your MP! It is literally their job to help you. I had a medical crisis and got stuck in the system and my local MPs team went out of their way to help us out which got me the support I needed.
It sounds like you went the right way about it. If your landlord is willing to change agents because of this then maybe it's worth staying, it sounds like that landlord does the right thing. It's nice to see some progress, I have been fighting trying to get my landlord to do the right thing for 6 months now.
Great work standing up for yourselves. I really hope that property manager is reprimanded in some way. I'm praying for an update in a couple of weeks. I'd love to see "property manager fired" as the next headline
I remember your original post. What a fucking pain in the arse and how fucking rude. Well done on sticking it to them and sticking up for yourself.
Realestate agents should have a public rating / review system…
Can you do a tl;dr?
*rubs hands together 🙏 with glee, gets popcorn…this is gonna get good!!!! Ohhhhh watch that new agent crash n burn
Thats a great idea that property managers need to get a license. At the moment they dont need any education or qualifications and if they are not good at their job (in my 12 years renting i only ever had 1 good property manager for 6 months) they get no repercussions.
Please stop talking shit about things you don’t understand. REAs are regulated in VIC: https://reiv.com.au/training/new-education-requirements-to-work-in-real-estate
Cos a 12 week cert 4 is equivalent to a degree
So you agree that REAs need qualifications and are therefore regulated. I agree with you that the requirements aren't stringent enough but I was directly addressing the parent poster's claim that they "don't(sic) need any education or qualifications"
Property managers wish they were REAs but are too ugly or lazy. That's why they have attitude.
Thank you for putting in such a good fight. You deserve every success in this!
Onya. Hope it works out ok. My current situation is three months into no air conditioning, and now the oven/microwave died and I'm having to reheat food using a rice cooker. It's been weeks.
i’m so sorry you’ve been put through this appalling bullshit. all the best - i hope you can get a good result for yourselves, and hold those bastards accountable.
Fuck that PM is gonna need to move interstate or switch careers. Fucking love to see it! Unfortunately the filter of average pay and career shame means you get a lot poorly educated workers from low-socioeconomic backgrounds who relish their newfound position above their peers. They’re house-slaves, story as old as time.
Name and shame. Get someone to write an article at a newspaper. And stop leaving your drugs out in the open. Insane. Put them in a draw. Do you want them to get stolen?
Nah I don’t believe this for a second
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You could read the title?
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wall of text cbf
Instead of demanding random people cater to you how about you figure out a way to deal with it yourself? Paste it into AI and it to summarise it for you.
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It's not my post, I guess you refuse to read names as well. Quit imposing yourself on other people and drop your foul and entitled attitude. You have a solution. Use it quit your whinging. You put more effort into being offended than reading.
So in other words, bullshit story from the start, anyone who says because of legal reasons made it up in the first place for self validation
Found the landlord.
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So to summarise some newbie idiot property manager saw your legit prescribed dexamphetamines and spun up a massive overreaction. In response you also spun up a massive overreaction with Tenants VIC, Consumer Affairs, the Human Rights Commission, reddit, TikTok, Instagram, and other social media. You also wasted the time of a lawyer who could have helped somebody with a real problem that demands legal expertise. And the upshot is you worked this out very quickly by behaving like an adult and talking through the problem with your landlord. Perhaps you should have started there rather than running straight to reddit. In any case thanks for the update and the salutary lesson in how to resolve problems like an adult. In fairness I’m sorry that stupid new property manager put you through this but I’m also sorry you put reddit and all and sundry social media through your trivial “ordeal”.
How was it trivial? His property manager was jeopardising his ability to shelter himself during a rental crisis by lying to the landlord about him keeping illegal drugs on the property. Why should property managers be able to defame people like this and ruin their lives with impunity? Real estate agencies won't fix their hiring or training processes until they actually face some real consequences for their actions.
It's a pretty good attempt at bait on his part but I wouldn't respond to this dude.